A recent study found that Manhattan was far thinner than the rest of the nation, so the Times sent someone out to ask the locals what they thought about it all and happened to run into an old Gawker pal.

Of course, no piece about skinny Manhattanites and their disdain for The Fats would be complete without a quote from a diminutive gay man emerging from a gym, but to randomly get one from the formercorrection: very much current Observer columnist and America's Next Top Model stylist who is also the creative director at Barney's, well, that's reeling in the big one baby!

"Our closets are filled all these expensive clothes that are like swords of Damocles, because we may not fit into them anymore," said Simon Doonan, (5-foot-4, 135), emerging from the Crunch gym on Lafayette Street, where men on treadmills could be seen through the windows.

Mr. Doonan, 56, the creative director of Barney's - the designer emporium where real estate brokers lunch on chopped salads - said he did not want to appear "fatist." Yet, he admitted, he notices the weight of people in other states.

"I'm appalled by people my age who can't get through the airport without a wheelchair," he said.

Well, we hate to be the ones to say this, but you, Simon Doonan, are indeed a fatist. And a necklace eater. But c'mon, everybody already knew that.